JFK tribute in Dallas sets dignified tone

Saturday

Nov 23, 2013 at 1:00 AMNov 25, 2013 at 9:55 AM

By Jim RuppertStaff Writer

DALLAS — Observing the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy was a slippery slope for Dallas, a city scorned and at times blamed for the shooting death of America’s 35th president on Nov. 22, 1963.

But the city pulled it off Friday afternoon with grace and dignity — exactly the way Ruth Collins Altshuler, chairman of the President John F. Kennedy Commemorative Foundation, mapped it out — in the cold and rain at Dealey Plaza.

“The 50th: Honoring the Memory of President John F. Kennedy” was shortened to 50 minutes due to rain and 37-degree temperatures. But the performances of Dallas Mayor Michael Rawlings, historian David McCullough and the United States Naval Academy men’s glee club made the day memorable for the 5,000 ticketed spectators, many who arrived as many as four hours before the ceremony began to get a good place to stand in Dealey Plaza.

“While the past is never in the past, that was a lifetime ago,” said Rawlings, who was honorary chair of the JFK commemorative foundation. “Now, today, we, the people of Dallas, honor the life, legacy and leadership of the man who called us to think not of our own interests but of our country’s.

“We give thanks for his life and service. We offer our condolences to his family — to his daughter, Caroline, especially — on this difficult day.”

Caroline, 55, was named U.S. ambassador to Japan earlier this month and did not attend Friday’s ceremony in Dallas. She is the sole remaining survivor of Kennedy’s immediate family.

“We pay tribute to an ‘idealist without illusions’ who helped build a more just and equal world. We salute a commander-in-chief who stared down a nuclear threat to our country,” Rawlings continued.

“We praise a writer who profiled true courage ... and modeled it himself. We applaud a visionary who created a corps of young Americans to promote peace around the globe.

“We stand in awe of a dreamer who challenged us — literally — to reach for the moon, though he himself would not live to see us achieve that goal.”

The mayor recalled how he first received the news of Kennedy’s shooting.

“Like so many of us who were too young to fully comprehend, I remember being called into the school gymnasium, told the terrible news and told to go home,” he said.

But now the mayor of Dallas says it’s time to move on.

“Well, it seems that we all grew up that day, city and citizens, and suddenly we had to step up to try to live up to the challenges of the words and visions of a beloved yet now late president,” Rawlings said. “Our collective hearts were broken.”

Rawlings’ remarks ended with a moment of silence and a tolling of the bells by 32 Dallas churches, followed by the Navy glee club’s rendition of “America the Beautiful.”

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